Alfred fenton and john barnes



A. FENTON & J. BARNES.

CAN OPENER.

Patented Aug. 16, 1892.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED FENTON AND JOHN BARNES, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

CAN-OPEN ER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart Of Letters Patent No. 480,868, dated August16, 1892.

Application filed October 20, 1891. Serial No. 409,243. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, ALFRED FENTON and JOHN BARNES, subjects of theQueen of Great Britain, residing at London, England, have invented a newand ImprovedTin-Oan Opener, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved construction of tin-can openerthat will enable either a rounded portion of the top of a can to be cutout or the top out right off.

To enable our invention to be properly understood, we will describe thesame by aid of the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 isalongitudinal view of the opener complete; Figs. 2 and 3, detachedportions of Fig. 1; Fig. 4, a perspective view of the opener inoperation.

A is the handle, holding a metal rod having a portion of its lengthrounded near the handle, as at B, and square for the remaining portionof its length, as at C. On a side of the end is a spike .D, the stem ofwhich is bent round where it is attached to the rod 0 to form a bend. Onthe square part is a sliding knife preferably carried on a sleeve E.This knife has two blades F G. the latter being turned at right anglesto the other.

H is a tin can.

The use and mode of operating our invention are as follows: The spike Dis first stabbed through the tin in the center of the top or bottom andthe knife F set upon the rod 0 at the requisite distance from the spike,according to the size piece to be cut out. The point of the blade F isthen pressed through the tin and the handle forced round, the blade Fthereby cutting out a round portion, the spike D holding the end of theopener to the center of the tin like a universal joint. If the piece isdesired not to be out clean out, the spike D enables the cut portion tobe readily turned back. It will be understood that during the cuttingthe can must be held by the hand sufficiently firm to allow the cuttingto take place. The operation above described is illustrated at Fig. 4.If it is desired to cut the top off the can completely, the sleeve E isdropped down to the round part B and turned round to bring the knife Gto the side of the rod to be in a line with the spike D, which is thenstabbed through the center of top and the point of the knife G pressedthrough the side of the can and the opener turned round, as has beendescribed. It is found in practice that the knife is better carried upona sleeve, such as E, and that this does not require any set-screw orother means to secure it while the

